Railway passenger-coach water-closet attachment.



No. 782,973. PATEN-IED FEB. 21, 1905.

A. L. LEEEVEE. RAILWAY PASSENGER COACH WATEE CLOSET ATTACHMENT.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 21, 1904.

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UNITED STATES Patented February 21, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

ABRAHAM L. LEFEVER, OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,973, dated February 21, 1905.

Application filed June 21, 1904. Serial No. 213,472.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, ABRAHAM L. LEEEV R, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lancaster, in the county. of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway Passenger-Coach Water-Closet Attachments; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in a railway passenger-coach water-closet attachment of that class in which a concaved cup, bowl, or basin is arranged under the projecting end of the tubular conduit from the closet bowl or seat within the body of the car to the desired point underneath the bottom thereof and pivoted or hinged to said projecting end and adapted to close or cover the same when the coach is stopped at a station and to be opened or uncovered when said coach is under way after leaving said station.

The object of the invention is to provide means whereby water-closets in passengercoaches may be used during the stoppage of trains Without fear or risk of dropping deposits in the closet-seat bowls onto the floorplanking or track-rails of such stations, thus avoiding the closing and locking of the doors of the closets to prevent their being used during said stoppages.

The elements of the invention will severally and at large appear in the following description, and they will be separately or combinedly pointed out or set forth in the appended claim.

The purposes of the invention are attained by the mechanism, devices, and means illustrated in the accompanying drawings, similar reference characters designating like parts throughout the several views, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of one end portion of a railroad passenger car or coach embodying the elements of the invention, with a portion of the side, broken away, showing the interior of a water-closet with certain of said elements in place therein; Fig. 2, an enlarged top viewof said portion of said coach with full and dotted lines, showing said elements in normally closed positions; Fig. 3, an inverted view of Fig. 2, showing the elements underneath the bottom of the coach in normally closed and opened position; Fig. 4, an enlarged sectional view taken through the center of the closet discharge-tube, showing the elements. in said last-mentioned positions in direct elevation; and Figs. 5 and 6, respectively, are direct and completed top views of the drip-receiving cup and the dischargetube as they. appear when detached from Fig. 4.

Within the closet is arranged the usual seatbowl A, covered by the usual seat-board a and top-lid a, both being hinged in place in the usual way, and through its bottom the bowl is provided with the usual drain pipe or conduit A, projecting the required distance through the bottom of the coach and having at its lower end a side projecting lug (0 provided with a horizontal-bearing orifice through which is passed a headed pivot pin or rod of. At the lower end of the conduitA is arranged a concaved cup, bowl, or basin A having at its open end side projecting cars a a", provided with orifices through which said rod (0 serves to pivot said basin A in place, so as to swing up over the mouth of said conduit to gather the droppings therefrom, being best shown by full lines in Fig. 4E, and to swing away from said month to empty said droppings, being best shown by dotted lines also in Fig. I, while one of said ears (4 is provided with an upwardly and outwardly sloping arm (0, whereby said basin is swung in either directionthat is, either up or downinto the respective positions above mentioned.

Extending vertically through the body of the coach from a prescribed point above its roof to the required distance below its bottom is mounted a rotatable rod B. \Vith one end rigidly secured to the upper end of this rod above said roof and its other or free end outwardly extended toward the marginal edge thereof is a wing or blade 5, adapted to be swung in either direction by contact of aircurrents thereagainst according to the running movement of the coach rotating said rod, and to the lower end of the rod below said bottom is rigidly secured the rear or inner end of a crank or lever arm 6, being turned conformably to the rotation of said rod, said leverarm having vertically through its free end an orifice for pivoting thereto one end of a linkrod B, with its other end pivoted to near the outer end of the upwardly and outwardly sloping arm K of the basin, said link-rod being adapted to trip or turn said basin to the dotted position indicated in the drawings on rotation of said lever-arm 6, while a coiled spring B having one end pivotally connected with the outer end of said arm a and its other end upheld by a post 6 projectcd from the bottom of the coach, serves through the resiliency thereof to return said basin from the dotted to the full-line position, again covering the outlet end of the drain-tube A or again placing it in the position to gather the droppings from said tube, as well as returning all of the elements to the first or normally closed positions.

Now theseveral parts hereinbefore described and occupying the respective positions indicated in the drawings an inspection thereof clearly shows that when the coach is standing still, as at a station, with the wing?) at the upper end of the rod B and extending outwardly across the roof of the coach toward the outer edge thereof, with the lever-arm b at the lower end of said rod, the bowl A covering the outlet end of the drain-tube A, and the link-rod B connecting said lever-arm and bowl, all being held in the full-line positions shown through the contraction of the springs B said bowl is held in the position to gather and hold the droppings from said tube; that when the coach is moving away from the station in the direction of the arrow 1 the air-current caused by the moving coach in coming in contact with the wing Z) will turn said wing in the direction of the curved arrow 2, and when said coach attains its full speed or headway said air-current will bring said wing to the dotted position 3, rotating the rod B, turning the lever-arm '6 to the dotted position 4, and thereby tilting or tripping said bowl to the dotted position 5, discharging its contents; that the same remarks will hold true when the coach is moving in the direction of the arrow 6, except that the wing Z) will move in the direction of the curved arrow 7, and when it has attained to the position lying opposite to the dotted position 3, above mentioned, the leverarm 6 will be in the dotted position 8 and the bowl A tripped or turned to the same dotted position 5, in which position the bowl will be held by the air-currents against said wing while the coach is in motion and again returned to the full-line or closed position through the resilient action of the spring B when the coach again stops at a station.

The invention having thus been ascertained and described and the manner in which its functions are performed fully shown and set forth, what is considered new, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

In a railway passenger-coach water-closet attachment, in combination; a seat-bowl arranged within the closet; adrain-tnbe arranged through the bottom of said bowl and projected through the bottom of the coach; a concaved basin arranged to cover the projected end of said tube and to be tilted away therefrom, said basin being hinged at one side to a side lug of said end; a coiled spring with one end secured to the bottom of the coach and its other end pivoted to an upwardlysloping arm of the basin, holding it in said covering position; a revoluble rod arranged vertically through the body of the coach, with one end extending above its roof and the other end below its bottom; a lever-arm with one end rigidly secured to the lower end of said rod and the other end thereof extended toward the upwardly-sloping arm of said basin; a link-rod with one end pivoted to the free end of said lever-arm and the other end thereof pivoted to the upper end of said upwardlysloping arm; and a wing with one end rigidly secured to the upper end of said revoluble rod above the roof of the coach, and the other end of said wing extending across said roof toward the side edge thereof; all substantially as described and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ABRAHAM L. LEFEVER.

\Vitnesses:

CHAs. E. Lone, Geo. W. ASPER. 

